November ended, and December came upon them with a even harsher cold. Snow fell heavily and several herbology lessons had been cancelled due to the snow storms that roared outside of the castle.

During her free period she sat with him in the back of the library, hidden away from everyone else. A candle was burning on the desk next to them and the snow whirled outside of the tall windows. He looked up from his book to sneak a glance at her before he wrote something down on his parchment that laid before him. He was working on his transfiguration homework and she was reading a book on the history of healing magic.

They were friends again, or they had made up at least. He hadn't exactly apologized, but she had seen something that strongly hinted of sorrow in his eyes that night up at the top of the astronomy tower and for some reason, which she hardly understood herself, she had forgiven him. Although she could not forget his odious actions against her friends, she still figured that he should get a second chance, for he had not actually been mean towards her.

She figured that it was best to keep her Gryffindor friends and him apart, and he had a preconceived notion that hanging around people of less pure blood than his was somewhat of a sin, so therefore their friendship remained secret, hidden away from curios eyes behind a tall shelf with dusty books in the school library.

"Hey Draco?" she mumbled, still keeping her eyes glued to the book she was reading.

His eyes however shot straight up from his homework, and a surprised smile tugged at the edges of his pale lips as he looked at her.

"What did you say?"

She looked up, furrowing her eyebrows towards him as she saw his surprised but slightly happy facial expression.

"I was just going to ask you a question..." she trailed, confusion clear in her soft voice.

"Yeah I get that, but y-you called me... Draco"

"Yes" she laughed, looking funnily at him "what's wrong with that? That is your name"

"I know, I know" he said, shutting his book as he looked at her with astonishment "you've just never called me by my first name before"

"Oh" she said, suddenly taken aback with the realization of his words. He was right, she had never actually called him Draco, she usually just says Malfoy, as everyone else at the school. He is known for his last name.

"I like it Eleonora" he said, gazing down at his hands as he grabbed his book and opened it once again "it establishes our friendship slightly further"

"Well I suppose..." she trailed, giving the pale boy a small smile "but don't call me that"

"What? Eleonora? That is your name"

"I know" she mumbled, scratching the top of her head "but it sounds so posh"

"I like it" he exclaimed, sitting up straighter "it sounds almost royal"

She sighed, flipping a page of her book before she looked up at him once more.

"Just call me Ellie please"

"Alright Ellie, will do"

....

The stone corridor was silent and empty as she walked back to the common room on a Wednesday evening. She had just been with madam Pomfrey in the hospital wing, helping her mend injured and sick students. It had been a particularly slow evening, but she managed to learn a thing or two nonetheless.

Christmas time was drawing nearer, but the morale of the school had never been so low. Hardly anyone seemed to look forward to Christmas, mostly everyone longed to go home merely to escape Umbridge. That woman is the walking devil. This time last year everyone was cheerful and excited, getting ready for the yule ball, but this year no one seemed to even smile.

Fred and George had been spreading their very special type of sweets around school, helping students in various ages to get out of Umbridges grasp by getting sick.

Dumbledore's army was growing stronger and stronger, and naturally it made Umbridge grow more and more paranoid. More rules appeared and she seemed to up her punishing game severely. The Inquisitorial Squad was lurking around, looking for whatever the rest of the students were up to.

"Hey Ellie, how was the infirmary?" Harry asked as she walked into the round Gryffindor common room.

"Slow but interesting still" she said, sitting down next to him on a couch. Hermione sat curled up on a armchair, reading a thick book. Ron was playing Wizards chess with Seamus at a table and a few first years were doing some last minute homework.

"Any injured students?" Harry asked, eyeing her slowly "anything that might be caused by Umbridge?"

"No, fortunately not"

"Alright, that's good" Harry mumbled, gazing off "that's a good thing"

They all shuffled off into bed not long after their conversation had ended. They had another long school day ahead of them and her feet were a bit sore from being on them for the entirety of the day.

The following morning she got up, a slight tiredness aching in her body as she walked to breakfast. The dull ache and the yawns followed her through every class, and it wasn't until their last class had ended when she realized that Harry looked even more exhausted than her.

"He's been up all night with nightmares, something about a snake, Ron told me" Hermione whispered to her as they walked down the corridor towards Gryffindor.

"Oh" she mumbled, gripping onto her book bag even harder "that sounds awful"

"Yeah, I'm starting to think it has something to do with... you know who" Hermione mumbled as she gazed over at Harry with worried eyes "this needs to stop"

"Well he can't control his dreams Hermione"

"No but I'm going to make him go to madam Pomfrey later, he may not be able to control his dreams but he will not even have to worry about that if he just simply doesn't dream"

"Oh yes of course, the dreamless sleep potion" she exclaimed, looking over at her best friend "you're a genius Hermione"

"I know" Hermione laughed.

The two girls walked into the Gryffindor common room where they found Ginny and Katie sitting by a table, trying to focus on their potions homework as Fred, George and Lee ran around with some second years playing with small fireworks.

"Fred Weasley, George Weasley what are you doing?" Hermione asked, her voice stern as she placed her hands on her hips. Ellie couldn't help but laugh as she stood behind her, something that caused Hermione to turn around and glare at her.

"Sorry" she mumbled as she quickly muffled her laugh.

"Well Hermione" Fred said, looking at his twin brother.

"Dear Hermione" George said, a smile upon his lips "we are simply preparing a little gift for Umbridge"

"Yes, something nice for the holidays" Fred added, smiling at George and Lee.

"You will do no such thing" Hermione bursted out, chasing the twins off "not after the whole Quidditch ban disaster, you will get the whole house of Gryffindor expelled surely"

Hermione seemed to occupy herself with confiscating the troublemaker's fireworks, and as she worked on convincing Fred and George to not bombard Umbridge with exploding colours, Ellie sneaked away to her dormitory, longing to just lay down in bed for a moment before dinner.

To Eleonora

As she walked up to her bed with the scarlet red drapes she saw a small note lying on her pillow. She picked it up, rolling her eyes at the use of her whole name on the front before she opened it, letting her eyes scan over the scribbled words.

Meet me by the lake after dinner,
I want to walk with you
- D.M

She couldn't help but smile as she closed the note up and put it in the drawer of her night stand before she laid down on her bed, stretching her legs out. Something about Draco Malfoy was intriguing, striking her with something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

Her peace and quiet did not last long, for soon a flustered Hermione came storming into the girls dormitory, her hair poking in different directions and her cheeks tinted pink.

"Can you believe the twins?"

"No" she laughed, looking at Hermione "but come on, it's Fred and George, when are they not up to something?"

"True" Hermione sighed as she grabbed her hairbrush from her nightstand and began fixing her messy hair "I just don't want any more trouble with Umbridge, she's getting more and more paranoid you know?"

"I know Hermione, but it will be fine"

"I hope so" Hermione said, putting her hairbrush away and straightening out her shirt "walk with me to dinner?"

"Alright" she sighed, getting up from her bed to follow Hermione to the great hall. They met up with Harry, Ron, Seamus and Dean who were already sitting at the Gryffindor table. Ron and Seamus had their mouths filled with chicken and Dean and Harry were talking about how Snape seemed to be in a even fouler mood than usual during potions class earlier today. She was inclined to agree.

She ate her dinner, not really contributing to the conversation that was held amongst the group, and after she was done she headed back to her dorm to change. She dressed in warm clothes, a dark grey beanie covering the brown hair on the top of her head and her red and golden Gryffindor scarf tightly wrapped around her neck. She grabbed a pair of knitted mittens before she headed out of the castle as quickly as she could. She didn't feel like answering questions, especially from Hermione who seemed to be becoming more and more wary about every little thing happening around her due to Umbridge.

She hurried down the snow covered school grounds, almost slipping twice on some patches of ice as she got closer to the lake. He was already there, dressed in his usual expensive looking all black attire matched with his Slytherin scarf.

"Hey" he said as she walked up to him "cute mittens"

"Thanks, my mother made them for me"

"How thoughtful" he said, smiling slightly as he raised his hands to show off his leather gloves that looked like they did cost quite a few galleons "my mother bought me mine, she's not really the knitting type"

She gave him a faint smile as they began to walk next to each other, gazing out at the frozen lake. The ice of it didn't look pretty and clear, it looked dark and like a thousand mysteries was lurking beneath it's surface. But still, it reminded her of how she used to ice skate with her younger sister on a frozen lake near her house during the holidays. Almost every day they were out there, sometimes for hours. Her dad would laugh, and her mother would bring them hot chocolate.

"Thank you for coming here" he said after a moment of silence, carefully gazing over at her with his icy grey eyes.

"Yeah of course" she mumbled, sticking her hands in the pockets of her wool jacket "don't worry about it"

"Are you going home for Christmas?" he asked.

"Yes, are you?"

"Yes, Malfoy manor awaits me" he said, a small smile tugging at the edges of his pale lips.

"Wait, Malfoy manor? Your house has a name?" she asked, muffling a laughter "wow you're rich"

"Shut up" he laughed, slightly nudging her "doesn't your house?"

"No" she laughed, shaking her head "maybe it just isn't a muggle thing, we just have an address"

"I have an address too" he said, looking at her.

"Alright alright mr rich guy" she teased, taking her hands out of her pockets and throwing them up in defense. He shook his head as a smirk graced his lips, she thought he looked like had just thought of something genius and before she could even comprehend what was happening he was bending down and scooping snow into his hands. He made a snowball and launched it as her, and she laughed as it hit her left shoulder.

"Oh you will regret that Malfoy!"

He laughed as he took off running, snow whirling around him. She made several snowballs and tried to strike him with them, but she kept missing, which only made him tease her further.

"Come on Ember! Come on hit me!"

She scooped up another handful of snow before she took off chasing him along the lake, she came so very close when he suddenly disappeared out of sight. He had slipped on a patch of clear ice underneath the snow, and before she could even react she was also loosing her footing. She slipped and landed right on him, dropping the snow right on his face as he grunted.

"Oh my god" she laughed, pulling her mittens off and began to wipe the snow off of his pale face "sorry"

"It's fine" he laughed, looking her straight in the eyes "you got me"

"No you got me actually" she pointed out, nodding her head towards their chests. She was in fact laying on top of him in the middle of the snow, and he laughed.

They laid so close, and she could feel his hot breath dance on her cold skin. His pale lips were only inches from hers, and his bright eyes sparkled in the darkness of the evening. He smelled of expensive after shave and minty toothpaste, and his nose was slightly runny. And something felt... different.